Day One at Asian Paints

Our life goes through so many transitions. So many things keep happening but we ought to remember those events which happen for the first time. One such transition is from “College to Corporate” and yes the Day One at office. I did a FPGDST (Fulltime Post Graduate Diploma in Advanced Software Technology) course from CDAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) and got placed on 18^th June, 2012 in the World of Colours: Asian Paints. Four of us got placed in Asian Paints as Programmer Analyst – Systems (I, Namrata Nimje, Piyush Singh & Nirgun Dave).

Photo of Splash 2013: Piyush, Namrata, Me, Nirgun

Pre-Joining visit: 08.08.2012 

The Asian Paints House is at Vakola, Santacruz East. Three of us (I, Namrata & Nirgun) met at the Santacruz station. We boarded Bus no. 318 and alighted at Vidya Nagari (North Gate) stop (thanks to the university students for helping us with the route). Then we walked the road till “Kalpataru Synergy”. Ravi Sir (S. Ravi Venkatramana, Sr. Manager) had informed us through mail that the office has shifted on 1^st August to Kalpataru Synergy, adjacent to Asian Paints House. Our CDAC senior Santosh Suryawanshi came to the KTS Reception to receive us. Our office was at 5^th Floor, West Wing. We had to make an entry in the security register. The office was twelve days young; it was called the “IT Floor”. 

We met Ravi Sir; we were told to sit in the meeting room (Tilde). Our CDAC seniors (Mangesh Dhondkar & Madhura Sule) and super-seniors (Amey Nandedkar, Pranita Rajadhyax & Priti Palekar) came hopping to meet us and we talked about CDAC. Later we met Deepak Sir (Deepak Bhosale, Chief Manager) and he almost scared us by saying, “Ravi, did you inform them about the bond which they have to sign on Day 1?” We three looked at each other with pale faces. Looking at our expressions, Ravi Sir smiled and said, “There is no such bond.” And we heaved a sigh of relief. We really loved the office, the interiors, the meeting rooms and the white desks. We were excited with the very thought of actually working in such an homely environment. What more a newbie would ask for from his/her first job!!

Day One: 13.08.2012

Again we met at Santacruz station in formal office wear. We decided to take a rick because we could not find the Bus no. 318. Piyush stopped an Auto and asked, “Asian Paints chaloge?” The auto-driver looked at us in surprise and said, “Asian Paints, woh kaha aata hai?” We were bewildered. Then I asked, “Grand Hyatt chaloge?” to which he replied, “Yes”. First, we took a right turn then left turn then straight till the traffic signal, crossed the road, then took the first right turn into a small lane (there was a hoarding of Ek Tha Tiger), and then again the second left turn then right turn and then left turn, here comes the hotels main gate and Asian Paints House is opposite to the Grand Hyatt Hotel. Instead of taking the auto-fare from us, the auto-driver was busy seeing Asian Paints House. “Acchccha toh yaha Asian Paints hai”

It was around 9.45 am. We made a gate pass (1+3), reached the reception and inquired for HR Officer Rupali Suryawanshi. We were sitting on the black couches and watching here and there. (Had it been college, I would have explored the ground floor by now, finding out what is where. But now I am an employee, not a student)

 

Then we decided to go to KTS5. We almost reached the main gate, met Rupali there. She said, “Where are you people going? You have to fill in the forms; follow me.” And we did the same. We were back to the black couches. It was 9.55am now and the reception area became a bit noisy. It was then we noticed the “Attendance In” machine.

Ravi Sir called us on the first floor in the meeting room Amber. We went to the room through the semi-circular granite marble stairs. The meeting rooms had fascinating names. Just as you enter the first one is Limerick, then to the right there is Amber, Carnation, Mediterranean, Flamingo, and Paradise (I remembered only these names on Day 1). We were told about the salary revision during the Pre-placement talk and hence now we got to know the exact package. Two were happy and two were happier (credit goes to the Year 0 and Year 1 concept). Ravi Sir went for his meeting; Rupali came in with bundle of forms and explained what has to be done. We started filling the forms and chatting with each other. So many forms to fill, the forms had different headings but the data to be filled in was almost the same viz. my name, father’s name, mother’s name, permanent address, correspondence address, mobile number, etc, etc. We finished off with it and handed over the forms and the photocopies of all the academic certificates to Rupali. It was 1pm, time just passed by. This is what all new joinees do on Day One; spend first half in filling forms. Santosh was waiting for us. He got a call, to which he replied, “Motha table pakad, mazhya barobar chaar juniors’ aahet.” We went through the Fire Exit door to the canteen in basement. There is HDFC Bank ATM in the basement. The table was already reserved for us. We had lunch with Santosh (Santo), Mangesh (Mango), Amey and Shailesh Malkar. Lunch time discussions were on our interviews. Our office is at KTS5, but we have to all the way come from there to canteen everyday for lunch! Post lunch we went to our IT Floor.

The cabins of all the Chief Managers and Senior Managers were to the extreme right. We walked to Ravi Sir’s cabin. The first cabin belonged to Ramesh Nair (Sr. Manager) Sir, second cabin belonged to Deepak Sir, and third was Ravi Sir’s. He introduced us to all the Chief Managers, starting with Parashu Sir (M. R. Parasuram, Chief Manager). Ramesh Sir was on a call. Again, we met Deepak Sir. He said, “So, you have signed the bond right! And you are here for another 20 years”. This time we had smiling faces. The last cabin belonged to Raj Sir (Rajgopal Nayak, Chief Manager). Ravi Sir informed him that two of us would be joining his team. And we were anxious to know the same. Then Ravi Sir instructed Santosh to introduce us to the whole floor; and we got an assignment of remembering at least ten names each. We started with Gayatri Patil’s desk. Santosh was repeating the same lines, “These are new joinees, my juniors’ from CDAC: Pranita, Namrata, Nirgun, Piyush”. The replies we got were, “Welcome to Asian Paints; Welcome to IT; Enjoy working here; All the best; Best of Luck”, etc, etc. I got comments as “One more Pranita; so you are Pranita Jr.; Pranita and Pranita: both from CDAC.” 

We had to remember ten names. The names I remembered were six of our CDAC seniors, then Gayatri, Aditi Gulati (she was look alike to Urja Ma’am from CDAC), Sandipa Veldandi (she was my senior during Graduation, D.G. Ruparel College) and Priyanka Salvi (whom Santosh introduced as Android expert). The floor introductions were done. This is a kind of ritual. When juniors join IT, one of their senior has to take the responsibility of introducing  them, taking them to canteen, answering their queries and a lot of things. Santosh enjoyed boasting by saying, "My juniors’ have joined, now I am a senior". Even my batch is good at  boasting. We told our CDAC friends that, “It was we going to join Asian Paints, that they made an IT floor especially for us.” And we got a throwback for this in the next month, “It was you who joined Asian Paints, that they even changed their logo!” 

We sat at a desk (at present the desk belongs to Aruna Vaidyanathan); it then belonged to Praveen Sir (Praveen Fernandes). He was absent on that day so Santosh logged in to egloo.asianpaints.com (Old Egloo) and told us to read Vakola Rules. The key rules which we noted down:

• Reach office between 8.30am to 10am, otherwise half day. Hence, we saw the struggle in the morning at 9.59am.

• Complete 8.30 hours per day (this includes lunch and tea break???).

• Wear formal clothes, on Fridays casuals were allowed.

• Only Vegetarian food (this was not written in the rules then, but it was explicitly mentioned by our seniors).

Everyone was working on desktops and laptops, except four of us. It was Day One: doing nothing, just sitting and observing the surroundings. There are five meeting rooms: tilde (~), ampersand (&), star (*), hash (#) and slash (\). Our floor was white and glass; white for all the desks and glass for the meeting rooms and doors. The glass doors are so clean (thanks to the housekeeping folks) that you do not realize that they exist until you dash against one. Many desks were vacant. We were anxious to know which desk will be allotted, when will we get our PCs, nameplates, ID cards, team and what technology will we work on. I could see the same screen on most of the PCs (ABAP screens), Lotus mail & Sametime chat window. You cannot get all the answers on Day One. But yes, others will ask you too many questions on Day One like:

• What technology are you going to work on?
• When will your training start?
• Which team will you be in?
• What have you done from CDAC?
• Where do you stay?

We went to the Pantry and explored the coffee machine. Each one took a different flavor: cappuccino, espresso, latte in the brown cups. We decided that we will meet here for coffee at 4pm and go to lunch by 12.45pm because it becomes too crowded after 1pm. All new was going to happen, how easy or how difficult, we did not know. We were discussing the same over the cup of coffee. 

Later, we went to Ravi Sir’s cabin to get our appointment letters. It was 5.30pm, we left KTS5. We had to sign in the register at reception in the morning and while going home, till we get our ID cards. The day was over, but the experience was different from that of College Day One. All newbie’s must have had similar kind of experience on their Day One at work.